Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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One of the interesting things about Paul’s writings that is not noticed enough is that Paul doesn’t really have an “application” section.
A promise was made to my older brother roughly 50 years ago. He was just an infant and had no idea that this promise was being set upon him.
Today, if you look closely at my left eye, you’ll see one tiny speck of powder embedded in the whiteness.
Why was Jesus crucified? Not to save victims, but to save sinners.
The authority God gives to men—to you and I as baptized believers in Christ—is to forgive sins, to free them from guilt, to free them from the power of sin.
I am not one of those people who can put together a jigsaw puzzle without using the picture on the box.
The dying words of Jesus were not, “Make it worth it,” but “It is finished.”
Jesus takes that burden away in the “I forgive you and them” and gives us His “light” burden.
There is no pain like the pain of being mistreated by those who, above all others, you expect to love you unconditionally.
What we see in the face of this God is not a loathing expression. We find the face of a compassionate man who knew all about shame himself.
No, when the Lord is ready for battle, of all creatures, he commissions Mary’s little lamb.
Like any language, the liturgy has syntax—a structure that provides order and intelligibly communicates meaning through all that is said.